Moai Mobile Game Development Platform Launches Open Beta

Zipline Games has announced its Lua-based Moai mobile game development platform has launched in open beta, after a closed beta attracted requests from nearly 700 international developers.

Moai's SDK offers mobile game developers a scalable cloud platform to easily offer online game services, persistent storage and DLC, as well as a Lua-based programming environment that allows for easy integration between different platforms.

"Developers can focus on a single language -- Lua -- rather than switching between three different languages for iOS, Android and cloud," Zipline CEO Todd Hooper told Gamasutra.

The open-source development environment offers commercial licenses for large studios, Hooper told Gamasutra, and will eventually charge for access for usage of cloud services, which are offered for free during the beta.

"The Moai platform is helping us build a great game faster than we could have otherwise," said Harebrained Schemes founder Jordan Weisman in a statement. "It allows us to get our ideas on to multiple hardware platforms very quickly so we can play test them on the actual devices."

The platform is also being used to power downloadable content for Nay Games' top-selling iOS game Bubble Ball, which has attracted 10 million downloads so far.

"Moai's cloud services are perfect for Bubble Ball's new downloadable content," Nay Games president Robert Nay said in a statement. "I get to write the cloud backend in Lua, the same language as Bubble Ball itself. Also, I don't have to set up the servers and worry about them going down. It's all done for me."